1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to medical knowledge systems and, more particularly, to systems for giving medical advice to the general public over networks.
2. Description of the Related Technology
Health care costs currently represent 14% of the United States Gross National Product and are rising faster than any other component of the Consumer Price Index. Moreover, usually because of an inability to pay for medical services, many people are deprived of access to even the most basic medical care and information.
Many people delay in obtaining, or are prevented from seeking, medical attention because of cost, time constraints, or inconvenience. If the public had universal, unrestricted and easy access to medical information, many diseases could be prevented. Likewise, the early detection and treatment of numerous diseases could keep many patients from reaching the advanced stages of illness, the treatment of which is a significant part of the financial burden attributed to our nation""s health care system. It is obvious that the United States is facing health-related issues of enormous proportions and that present solutions are not robust.
One prior attempt at a solution to the health care problem is called Ask-A-Nurse, wherein a group of nurses provide health information by telephone around-the-clock. A person with a medical problem calls an 800 number and describes the problem to the nurse. The nurse uses a computer for general or diagnostic information on the ailment or complaint mentioned by the caller. The nurse may then refer the caller to a doctor from a computerized referral list for a contracting hospital or group of hospitals. Client hospitals contract with Ask-A-Nurse to provide patient referrals. A managed care option called Personal Health Advisor is similar and adds the capability for the caller to hear prerecorded messages on health topics 24 hours a day. Several problems exist with these prior medical advice systems. First, these systems have high costs associated with having a nurse answer each telephone call. Second, the caller may have to belong to a participating health plan to utilize the service. Third, if for some reason all nurses on a particular shift happen to be busy and the caller has an emergency condition (that is not known by the caller to be an emergency), precious time in getting emergency services may be lost during the delay.
Another prior health system was developed by InterPractice Systems which provides a computerized service that answers health care questions and advises people in their homes. A health maintenance organization (HMO) may provide this service to its members in a particular geographic area. To get advice at home, an HMO member connects a toaster-sized box to a telephone and calls a toll-free 800 number. Using a keyboard that is part of the box, the user answers questions displayed on a screen of the box relating to the user""s symptoms. Depending on the answers, the user might be told to try a home remedy, be called by a nurse or doctor, or be given an appointment to be examined. A limitation of this system is the additional expense of the electronics box, which could either be purchased by the user for approximately $300 or purchased by the health organization with the expense to be passed on to the users. Another limitation is that this service is directed to members of a particular contracting health organization, such as an HMO. What is desired is a system that does not require additional hardware for the basic service, but that utilizes the existing communication network. The desired system should be available for use by any person, not just members of a certain organization.
A prior attempt at a health care solution for a limited set of conditions is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,712,562. A patient""s blood pressure and heart rate are measured and the measurements are sent via telephone to a remote central computer for storage and analysis. Reports are generated for submission to a physician or the patient. U.S. Pat. No. 4,531,527 describes a similar system, wherein the receiving office unit automatically communicates with the physician under predetermined emergency circumstances.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,838,275 discloses a device for a patient to lay on or sit in having electronics to measure multiple parameters related to a patient""s health. These parameters are electronically transmitted to a central surveillance and control office where a highly trained observer interacts with the patient. The observer conducts routine diagnostic sessions except when an emergency is noted or from a patient-initiated communication. The observer determines if a nonroutine therapeutic response is required, and if so facilitates such a response. As previously mentioned, highly trained people are needed by this system along with the special measurement apparatus (embedded in a bed or chair).
Other prior attempts at a health care solution are typified by U.S. Pat. No. 5,012,411 which describes a portable self-contained apparatus for measuring, storing and transmitting detected physiological information to a remote location over a communication system. The information is evaluated by a physician or other health professional. As before, highly trained people are necessary to utilize such an apparatus.
Several services to provide medical or pharmaceutical advice are now available via xe2x80x9c1-900xe2x80x9d telephone numbers, e.g., xe2x80x9cDoctors by Phone.xe2x80x9d These services are available 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. A group of doctors, including some specialties, is available to answer questions about health care or medical conditions for people anywhere in the United States who call the xe2x80x9c1-900xe2x80x9d telephone of one of the services. A group of registered pharmacists answers questions about medications for the xe2x80x9c1-900xe2x80x9d pharmaceutical service.
The present solution to the health care problem is a computerized medical diagnostic and treatment advice (MDATA) system that is a medical knowledge-based system designed to give medical advice to the general public over the telephone network.
The goal of the MDATA system is to provide everyone with equal access to high quality, 100%-consistent medical advice at a reasonable cost. The MDATA system provides callers with extremely fast and virtually unlimited access to health care information, twenty-four hours a day, from any location around the world. Health care advice is made available to an entire spectrum of users, from elderly patients confined to their homes to travelers in a foreign country with telephones in their cars.
The central ideas leading to the development of the MDATA system are based on the following assumptions:
Nearly 90% of all patient complaints are confined to approximately 100 medical problems.
Almost all primary care decisions involved in these 100 problems can be made based upon information learned solely by obtaining a detailed medical history. The results of the physical examination, laboratory, and imaging studies only tend to confirm a diagnosis.
The minimal amount of information that many doctors believe can only be obtained from the physical examination can actually be directly acquired from the patient when given appropriate instructions.
In most cases, a face-to-face interaction between the doctor and patient is not necessary. A detailed and well-constructed history, along with physical findings elicited from the patient, can be obtained over the telephone.
Medicine is basically diagnosis and treatment. Although treatment recommendations change frequently, the fundamental principles of making the diagnosis do not.
There is a significant delay between the time a new therapy is recognized as safe and effective and the time physicians are able to provide it to their patients.
These central ideas are utilized in the implementation of the MDATA system.
A goal of the MDATA system is to give better medical advice than a family practitioner who is unfamiliar with a patient, e.g., an on-call physician. A person seeking medical advice frequently will not be able to see or speak with his or her personal physician in a timely manner. The MDATA system provides medical advice whenever desired by the callerxe2x80x94seven days a week/24 hours a day.
All previous medical algorithms, including those used in the military, are designed for face-to-face interactions. Self-help books generally do not consider age and sex in their algorithms. Furthermore, a book cannot take into account how many times a person has consulted the same algorithm within a short period of time for the same problem. The medical algorithms used by the MDATA system are designed for use in a telecommunications setting and overcome the deficiencies of self-help books.
Previous medical advice systems do not do a time-density analysis for a number of factors with regard to the number of complaints per unit of time. The MDATA system uses xe2x80x9cmetaxe2x80x9d functions to perform these analyses.
Previous medical advice algorithms do not have a way of detecting the consciousness level of the person seeking consultation. The MDATA system invokes a xe2x80x9cmental status examinationxe2x80x9d whenever a complaint or problem has the possibility of an altered level of consciousness. In addition, the MDATA system uses xe2x80x9csemantic discrepancy evaluator loopsxe2x80x9d which allow the system to invoke the mental status exam if there are differences in answers to the parallel threads of thought that are woven or embedded into the system.
Other medical advice systems do not have a xe2x80x9cre-enterxe2x80x9d feature to monitor a patient""s progress or worsening over time. The MDATA system checks for and responds to changing conditions over time.
Prior medical advice systems suffer from the inability to be nearly instantly updated as new medical information is made available. The MDATA system regularly and frequently updates the treatment aspect of the system.
The computerized medical diagnostic and treatment advice (MDATA) system is a medical knowledge-based system designed to give medical advice to the general public over the telephone network. Using a new authoring language, interactive voice response and speech recognition technology, the MDATA system encodes a highly useful core of expert and general practitioner diagnostic and treatment knowledge into a computerized system for access by non-medically trained personnel.
The MDATA system does not provide advice for every medical problem, nor does it make an exhaustive study of one vertical cross-section of medicine. Instead, the MDATA system provides up-to-date medical advice for approximately one hundred of the most commonly encountered problems in general practice and emergency medicine. It also provides valuable information to the public on any number of other medical topics.
As another embodiment of the MDATA system, a person desiring medical advice and having access to a personal computer (PC) loads a program into the PC to produce a stand-alone medical diagnostic and treatment advice (SA-MDATA) system. Rather than listening to questions and responding via touch tone keypresses or via voice, the user responds to questions and directions displayed on the computer screen via a computer input device, such as a keyboard or mouse. The diagnosis and/or treatment recommendations provided by the MDATA system are the same as that provided by the SA-MDATA system. The user of the SA-MDATA system can procure updates by contacting the MDATA system sponsor/administrator to obtain the most current treatment table information for a particular diagnosis.
Yet another embodiment of the MDATA system utilizes communication networks, such as the Internet, to connect a user or patient with the MDATA computer. The user utilizes a network access processor or computer to access the network. This embodiment utilizes medical diagnostic scripts executed on a script engine to generate medical advice or a diagnosis. The scripts and script engine may be executed on the MDATA computer in a manner similar to the telephonic embodiment above. Alternatively, selected portions of the MDATA software and one or more scripts may be downloaded to the user""s computer for execution. The MDATA computer may download additional or newer scripts to the user""s computer over the network as necessary.
In another embodiment of the invention, there is a medical diagnostic and treatment advice system for providing information to a patient, comprising a computing environment; an input device, connected to the computing environment, to receive information from the patient; an output device, connected to the computing environment, to provide information to the patient; and at least one medical algorithm selectively executed based on at least a portion of the received information, wherein the medical algorithm scores at least a portion of the received information and diagnoses a medical condition associated with the executed medical algorithm if the score reaches or passes a threshold, wherein the diagnosed medical condition is communicated via the output device.
In another embodiment of the invention, there is an automated medical diagnostic system, comprising a communications network; a server connected to the communications network; a client computer connected to the communications network; and at least one medical algorithm selectively executed, on the server or client computer, based on at least a portion of the received information, wherein the medical algorithm scores at least a portion of the received information and diagnoses a medical condition associated with the executed medical algorithm if the score reaches or passes a threshold, wherein the diagnosed medical condition is communicated via an output device connected to the client computer.
In another embodiment of the invention, there is a computerized method of providing information to any one of a plurality of patients for use in a medical diagnostic or treatment advice system on a computer network, the method comprising selectively executing at least one medical algorithm, accessing a patient medical history during an evaluation process, wherein each patient is associated with at least one file containing medical information unique to the medical condition of the patient, and wherein the patient medical history is persistently stored in the at least one file, determining medical advice particular to a medical condition associated with the medical algorithm through communication on the computer network with a selected one of the patients and with information stored in the patient medical history, and providing the medical advice to the selected patient.
In another embodiment of the invention, there is a computerized method of providing information to a patient for use in a medical diagnostic or treatment advice system having a user access processor on a computer network, the method comprising receiving at the user access processor of the patient or an assistant to the patient, information indicative of at least one medical algorithm; transmitting information indicative of the patient from the user access processor, the information being of use in conjunction with persistently stored patient information; and receiving medical advice particular to a medical condition associated with the medical algorithm.